In the political hierarchy described by Milton and Virgil, power rightly belongs to a man and not a woman. In an era where men are the sole rulers of the nation, a woman's possession of power and influence is considered unnatural and dangerous to the well-being of a nation. Women, as depicted in Milton's Samson Agonistes and Virgil's Aeneid, are seen as temptresses, creatures deceptive and cunning in the way they seduce men. Milton's text quotes: "Therefore the universal Law of God / Has given man a despotic power / Over his wife with reverence" (SA 1053-5). By exposing women's vulnerability to their whims and irrational passions, Milton and Virgil represent their female figures as a source of man's destruction and as evil temptations that man must resist in order to build a great, uncorrupted nation. . Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Delilah is the embodiment of the deceitful wife in Samson Agonistes, as she encourages the downfall of the text's hero, her husband Samson. Samson presents her as a deceitful concubine who brought me, like a tamed Wether, all my precious fleece, then made me ridiculous, stripped, shaven and disarmed among my enemies. (537-40) In this metaphor, Samson is a helpless lamb subject to the ruthlessness of Delilah, who strips Samson of his strength and feeds him to her enemies once she learns his secret. As a result, Israel remains oppressed by the Philistines while Samson is captive under the Philistines because of Delilah. For this betrayal, Delilah deserves the vindictive epithets of "specious monster" and "serpent in the breast of pois'nous". A woman's abuse of power over a man in his hour of weakness is mirrored in Delilah, where she is shown taking advantage of Samson's loss of strength. Once a woman makes a man succumb to her, she feels empowered to try his tricks again. The proof of this statement is Delilah's cunning strategy to bewitch Samson again. Delilah appeals to Samson as she constantly tempts him with different excuses. First, she attempts to neutralize his sins by pointing out Samson's weakness as the main cause of his current abject state. As a rhetorical question, she asks him: “Was it not also weakness to make known... In what did all your strength and security consist? (778-80), and follows: “As for what I have done, you first showed me the way” (781) as an indirect accusation of Samson. On this ground, Delilah attempts to equalize with Samson, showing that they both acted on their own weaknesses. Playing different roles also allows Delilah to incorporate her tricks into Samson. She plays the vulnerable and needy wife to her husband when she explains that the reason she deprived Samson of his strength was to prevent him from leaving her as he had left his first wife in Timnah. When this excuse fails, Delilah then embodies the virtuous woman who does her duty to her people and to Dagon. She justifies her betrayal as a rescue mission to save her people from "the dishonorer of Dagon" (861), because Samson massacred thousands of Philistine men. An attempt at role reversal occurs as Delilah makes Samson the oppressor and attempts to act as a liberator, as she preaches “to the public good / Private respects must yield” (867-8). Finally, she embodies the attentive wife, whose “conjugal affection” (739) pushes her to call him back to her. But Samson resists this last temptation, because he is more perceptivethan before of his tactics: “With what cunning the witch deploys / Her own transgressions, to reproach me for mine! (819-20). Despite the many temptations that a woman like Delilah presents, it is the duty of a man like Samson to stubbornly see through the multiplicity of her wiles and avoid her traps. Through Samson's constant resistance to Delilah, Milton proves that man gains true freedom once he thwarts the bewitching oppressions of woman. Being ruled by a woman, as depicted in the text, is a sign of weakness and the result of feminine wiles. To support this statement, the chorus says to Samson: “Tax is not a divine provision, the wisest men / have erred and been deceived by bad women; / and will once again pretend never to be so wise” (210-3). The text further highlights the degraded state of man under the power of a woman by comparing Samson's previous glory with his current slavery. Referring to the days before Samson's marriage to Delilah, the chorus describes Samson as "This heroic, this famous/irresistible Samson?" Now, Samson resides in an extremely opposite state; he is the slave of his enemies, the Philistines, the people of Delilah, because previously he could not escape Delilah's spells: "But a filthy weakness kept me under the yoke / Her slave-slave" (410-1 ). Samson admits this as a weakness when he accepts responsibility for the outcome of his actions. He concedes that what I suffer now, it was not her who was the primary cause, but myself, who conquered with a burst of words (oh weakness!) abandoned my fort of silence to a woman. (233-6) But when the chorus instead blames Delilah and calls it “her stain, not hers” (325), the text addresses the notion of original sin. Because Eve's consumption of the forbidden fruit consequently cursed the women and forced them to bear original sin, the blame is placed entirely on Delilah. The text uses Delilah to symbolize women as tools of destruction. When Delilah enters, the chorus exclaims: “But who is this, what thing of the Sea or the Earth? / Woman of sex it seems” (710-1). By depicting Delilah as an excessively decorated ship, this metaphor presents the landing ship as a symbol of the destruction of the state. She is dressed richly as for war, “With all her bravery and equipment” (717), and her “amber perfume of fragrant perfume” (720) hides the stench of her crime-ridden trail. Characterizing this vessel as feminine implies the woman's natural tendency to endure destruction as she does children. The pronouns in the metaphor describing Delilah as “thing” and “she” are pejorative and reflect the text’s negative vision of the female sex. Samson also categorizes Delilah and all women as false when he dryly says, “Outside, outside Hyena; these are your usual arts, / And the arts of every false woman like you, / To break all faith, all vows, deceive, betray” (738). -50). Samson further attests to the assertion that woman's purpose on earth is to destroy man by stating, "God sent her to degrade me" (999). This defies the biblical teaching: “Even so, ye wives, be submissive to your own husbands” (King James Bible, 1 Peter 3:1), which emphasizes that a good wife is gentle, submissive, and respectful to her husband. The Bible also teaches husbands to give “honor to the wife, as to a weaker vessel” (King James Bible, 1 Peter 3:7), and thus recognizes women as the weaker sex. Women who strive to challenge this hierarchy are thus represented as created to naturally deceive and destroy. The Aeneid presents a similar point of view by demonstrating thetendency of its female characters to prevent the male protagonist, Aeneas, from reaching Latium to establish the destined future walls. of Rome. Juno is one of Aeneas' main obstacles on his path to following his destiny. Her hatred of the Trojans combined with her goddess powers allows her to continually delay Aeneas. She asks Aeolus to send the winds to scatter Aeneas' crew along the sea and she sends Allecto to incite war between the Trojans and the Latins. Allecto also illustrates the destructive woman; she is a creature of Hell hated by her father and sisters, because she is associated with wickedness. Juno summons her for this main reason: “You have the power: when brothers love each other / You know how to arm them, put them into battle” (Book VII, 352-3). Queen Amata's infection with Allecto drives her into a mad frenzy, in which she rallies the Latin women against Lavinia's fatal engagement to Aeneas. Here, Queen Amata is transformed into a wild beast, "her eyes are stained and bloodshot" (Book VII, 426), and now the women praise Mars instead of Bacchus. These actions, all involving female figures, prevent Aeneas from easily achieving his destiny. Throughout The Aeneid, we find the motif in which a woman is the cause of war. In addition to the supernatural war aids provided by figures such as Juno, The Aeneid mentions women who, although not actively helping to fan the flames of war, are destined to bring about destruction. Lavinia, for example, “would be glorious, / they said, in fame and fortune, but the people / were doomed, because of her, to war” (Book VII, 75-7). This compares Lavinia to Helen, who was the cause of the Trojan War. Although Lavinia and Helen can be seen as innocent bystanders, they symbolize the traps a man can fall into when he is not careful in his relationship with a woman. A key female figure is Dido, who represents the temptress, the feminine threat to Aeneas' fate. , and the unfortunate leader overcome by a dangerous irrational passion. Book I presents Dido as a powerful and strong woman through the Homeric comparison which compares her to the goddess Diana. “She came to the temple / With a long train, all majesty, all beauty, / Like... Diana leads her troops of dancers” (521-5). The Aeneid begins its description of Dido as a just leader: "She took her throne, a dispenser of law and justice, / A just sharer of labor and duty" (Book I, 523-4). However, when we carefully examine the verse recounting the moment when the Tyrians “set sail, with a woman for captain” (Book I, 380), we perceive a condescending voice. Adding “with a woman as captain” to the statement adds a sense of unease, as if it is unusual for a woman to lead, and so is a detail that should not be omitted. This reveals the doubts that were harbored towards women in power. Book IV then transforms Dido into a person consumed by the fire of irrational passion for Aeneas, the fire that is synonymous with the fire of war and destruction. The beginning of Book IV is full of images of fire, such as Dido's "burning heart" and the "flame" of passion. The fire destroys Dido's reason and her ability to think clearly, just as the fires of war ravage cities, reducing great nations to ashes. Likewise, Dido poses a threat to the building of the Roman Empire as she tries and begs Aeneas to stay with her. The comparisons of the wounded deer and the Maenad convey Dido's vulnerability, as a woman, to these dangerous passions, because “Dido does not care about fame, reputation. / In the way that [the..